


You Could Be Happy

by CursedEstlin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Lena’s wavy hair deserves its own damn tag, Post Crisis, Pre 5x10, SuperCorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 09:49:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CursedEstlin/pseuds/CursedEstlin
Summary: Kara explores her apartment post Crisis and discovers who she’s been spending her time with and has a tough choice to make. Lena must make her own decisions.OR: How Larry’s moms got their groove back.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 134
Kudos: 899





	1. Everything I Own Smells of You

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are again, friends!  
> Look, I wouldn’t have to keep rewriting things if the show writers got their shit together. 
> 
> Notsorry for shamelessly stealing Snow Patrols excellent and apt song title/lyric mentions.

It felt good to get back into routine - no matter how mundane. Even fluffing up whatever was in the dryer and listening to the hum of it running was soothing. Kara took a deep breath, shrugging some of the tension away as she adjusted the settings and found herself wandering around the familiar setting of her apartment, yet feeling like a stranger. 

She goes to the fridge first, opening it with cautious optimism that she hadn’t somehow turned into some kind of health food junkie. There was a surprisingly fresh tub of green leafy things in the crisper and some kind of weird plant based butter alternative and a couple bottles of fancy salad dressing that definitely cost way more than what she’d consider spending to cover salad of all things, but the remaining junk was all friendly and non offensive. 

It’s when she closes the fridge and sees the photos stuck under magnets that she nearly twitches with confusion. There’s a cute shot of Alex and Kelly taking a couple-y type photo on the beach.. and also one of her and Lena on what appears to be the same beach and likely taken at the same time. Also looking very couple-y. Lena’s arms are slung around her neck and she’s not even looking at the camera - she’s staring at Kara and she looks.. 

Happy. 

Radiant. 

More content than she can ever remember seeing her look. 

And Kara? She has a huge grin on her face, so wide her eyes are just slits. 

There’s a few other candid photos and something resembling a schedule in which whatever yesterday was, “L” did it - but the photo that has her pulling it off the fridge for closer inspection is one of Lena wearing what looks very much like Kara’s ‘Power To The Girls’ jersey and she’s hanging upside down in Kara’s arms, both of them laughing and carefree and so obviously _together_ that it sucks the oxygen clean out of her lungs. 

She returns the photo under the magnet from a beach resort she doesn’t recognize and wanders around her apartment some more. There’s a few electronic devices and chargers she doesn’t recognize. A box in the closet with adult toys that WAS NOT there before and several outfits fit for a princess, another drawer with just lacy and expensive things and some over priced toiletries in her shower cabinet that definitely aren’t hers but she knows are Lena’s even as she opens a bottle up to smell. 

The buzz on her dryer has her abandoning her exploration and pulling the door open, desperate for some normalcy. She reaches in and pulls out a couple of T-shirt’s, folding and stacking them on the counter. She reaches back in and withdraws a bra that is most definitely not hers. It’s too delicate, for one. And a little bigger than her cup size, frankly. And expensive. 

She feels a bit skeevy folding someone else’s underwear, but muddles through it quickly and maturely, thank you very much. 

She’s almost hesitant reaching inside the dryer again. “It’s not like there’s a shark in there,” she scolds herself. 

“What the hell is going on!” She stares at the panties clutched in her fist. It’s impossible not to notice how soft they are. Like, silky, smooth, wants to roll around in them, soft. 

With an annoyed huff, she tosses them back in and grabs her phone, calling the one person who will give her answers. 

“Yell-o,” Alex greets. 

“Alex. I need to ask you a very serious question,” she starts. 

“What’s up?”

The floodgates open and Kara rushes through her inquiry. “Why are Lena’s underthings in my dryer? Why are there pictures of us at the beach and at a party and hanging out here? And why is her shampoo in my bathroom and an extra toothbrush by the sink? Why does my bed smell like her and why does my heart feel like it’s going to fall out?”

Alex is silent for a moment, letting Kara huff and puff and regain her composure. “Why do _you_ think that stuff is there?”

“Because we’re together,” Kara concludes. Her heart pounds so hard she can hear it in her ears and she finds herself dropping heavily onto her couch. The same couch that also smells like her favorite CEO. Wait. Was she still CEO in this universe? Another question to answer. 

“Alex. Alex, what do I do?”

“I’m sorry, Kara. I didn’t even think to say anything when J’onn restored my memories because even though I remember now that whoa, she’s hella pissed at us, it also just seems like you two have always been together.”

Kara chews on that thought for a moment. “Yeah,” she answers glumly. 

“You two really love each other in this universe,” Alex tells her carefully. 

Kara feels like that’s true in any universe. Too many months without her, without anyone but the other paragons, leaves a lot of time to marinate in ones brain stew. There’s some things she’s willing to admit now. Or at least consider. Especially when Kate called her out on it pretty early into their confinement. _“Being in love with your best friend isn’t a bad thing unless she doesn’t love you back. After everything you’ve told me, it’s pretty obvious she loves you too.”_

Lena loves her now. And she’ll continue to love her right up until she fixes her memories and Kara becomes the person that crushes her all over again.

“She’s here a lot?” Kara thinks to ask when the silence stretches on. 

“Yeah. She has the penthouse with Lex, but you’d both rather she be with you at what you disturbingly call your love nest.” She can practically see Alex cringing. It makes her feel a bit queasy right now, too. 

“How long have we been together?”

“Officially? Or pining looks, long lunches and corporate takeovers? Because that’s been going on as long as you’ve known each other,” Alex points out and Kara can’t help but wonder which universe she’s talking about specifically. 

“Corporate what?” Kara splutters, catching up again.

“CatCo. She bought it to make sure you had a place to do what you love. And then she sold it so it wouldn’t be inappropriate to date you,” Alex filled her in and Kara found herself flattered and flustered. “You know. So you could still _do what you love_.” Alex laughed a little at her own joke. “Sorry.”

“Not helping!” Kara complained. 

“Right. So. Officially, I think it happened after Ben Lockwood kidnapped her last year. We didn’t see you guys for like a week after you rescued her and you haven’t been apart since then.”

Kara feels a wave of protectiveness wash over her even now at the mention of Lena being in danger and the urge to smash Ben where the liberty doesn’t shine. “Please tell me Lockwood is behind bars where he belongs,” she begs her sister. 

“He is. You literally chucked him over the fence into a super max prison yard when you caught up to him,” Alex confirms.

Kara gives herself a nod of satisfaction and checks her phone when it buzzes in her hand. It’s a text from Lena and she nearly launches the phone through the ceiling as she tries to reign it back in. “It’s Lena! Lena’s texting me!” She nearly shouts at Alex. “What should I do?”

She doesn’t miss the snort of amusement. “What’s it say?” Alex asks, calmly. Rationally. Logically, even. 

“I don’t know? I didn’t read it!” There’s some silent judging going on that she can feel through the phone. She feels sheepish as she lowers the phone from her ear to read the screen. “It says ‘The meeting is running long. Probably won’t be done for a couple more hours’ and then there’s a sad face. Aww. Stupid meeting,” Kara sympathizes immediately, already missing Lena when she hasn’t even seen her yet. 

More silent judging. 

“I don’t want to lose her again,” she finally voices into the cosmos.

“If this isn’t real, you never had her back,” Alex points out. “And if it is real and her memories are returned, you think she’s going to be okay with you manipulating her within your relationship?”

“No.” Kara hangs her head down. She’s gone too long feeling the sting of her lies to Lena and years before that doing the actual lying and feeling shitty about it. It had to end. Again. No matter how painful it was going to be, Lena needed to know the truth. 

Alex sighed wearily. “Maybe she’ll appreciate your honesty this time.”

“Right,” Kara whispers, disbelievingly. “Do you remember the Black Mercy?”

Alex’s stomach sinks. She nearly lost Kara. Reeling her back from a life on Krypton with her family, wonderfully alive and happy, was one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do. Even _she_ wanted to see Kara get the chance to be with her parents. 

“This is harder,” Kara confesses and then there’s nothing left to say between the sisters. 

Kara eventually finds herself on the bed, going through her phone and finding so many pictures and videos of Lena and of them together that she could easily spend the rest of the day submerged in the evidence of their romance. Of their feelings for each other. She indulges only long enough to realize what a horrible mistake she’s made. Seeing the proof of what could have been breaks her down even more. 

She curls around too many pillows and feels not for the first time since she woke up in this new world, as if everything she owns smells like Lena. She drowns in it. In her tears. In the essence of someone she’s going to lose all over again. 

Plummets in the devastating knowledge that just for a perfect moment, she has it all.

* * *

Lena finds Kara curled up on the bed and that’s her first sign something is wrong. Kara is a sprawler. Good day, bad day, puppies all day or fighting crime all night, Kara took up space when she slept. Seeing her drawn in to seem as small as possible and protecting or soothing herself like this was not good. 

She knew something was off earlier when she talked to Alex about their plans for game night later that week. Now she just had to figure out what it was and what she could do to make it better. She considered curling up with Kara and just letting her know she was there and decided against it. She needs to know what’s bothering her.

She traces her hand over Kara’s shoulder and down her arm and back up again, gently coaxing her awake. Kara grumbles a bit about being woken up but that quickly fades when she exclaims Lena’s name and nearly knocks her off her feet in her enthusiasm to hug her. 

“Good nap?” Lena teases, returning Kara’s long squeeze of affection. Her smile slowly fades the longer Kara holds her and it’s becoming clear that she doesn’t plan to let go anytime soon. “Kara? What’s happened? Are you okay?”

“I miss you.”

Lena’s brow furrows with concern. “I’m right here.” 

Kara finally pulls away, holding her in the circle of her arms as she gets her first good look at Lena in far too long. Lena’s hair is wavy and so unlike the typically straight hair she usually favors that it makes Kara smile at how much it suits her. Lena returns the smile and leans in, her intentions to kiss Kara hello obvious and Kara hates that she has to duck away. 

“What’s going on?” Lena steps back, regarding Kara with a more familiar expression. “Alex was weird on the phone earlier. Did you two crash another one of my cars? You’re hell on my insurance, honey.”

“What? No!” Kara denies, wondering exactly how many and how frequently she and Alex wrecked Lena’s vehicles. 

“So you just don’t feel like kissing me? That’s new, and terrible,” Lena smiles again, so guileless that it stabs Kara between the ribs.

“I do!” Kara answers immediately and then tilts her head in surprise at her rapid confession realizing that she does, in fact, want to kiss Lena Luthor. “I do,” she repeats, more resolutely. 

Lena’s expression lights up and she steps close again, only to be deflected once more. “But you won’t want to soon and I can’t take advantage of you like this,” Kara says, haltingly.

There’s a knock at the door that Lena barely acknowledges as she regards Kara, her expression unreadable. 

“That’s J’onn,” Kara breaks away from Lena to answer the door. She texted him earlier and let him know where Lena could be found.

Lena’s arms are crossed defensively over her chest as they approach her. 

J’onn greets Lena and gives Kara room to explain why he’s there and what’s about to happen.

“We’re not supposed to be here,” Kara begins. “None of us. Anti-matter swept through and wiped out every universe, including our Earth and Argo. 

“There was a team chosen to stop it, but we failed. We lost everything and everyone. We were trapped in a pocket outside known dimensions and found a way to fight. Found something **to** fight. We recreated the multiverse, but something changed. Something happened. Everything is different. It’s all wrong.”

Lena listens carefully, full of questions and also certainty that what Kara’s saying is true. “What’s different? What do you think changed it?”

Kara looks morose as she says one thing that has Lena recoiling defensively away from them. 

“Lex.”

“He’s done nothing but support, defend and _employ_ you. And now you’re turning on him?” Lena questions in disbelief and hurt.

“I’m afraid it’s true, Lena. In reality, Lex is a dangerous sociopath. He’s manipulated this situation to become the hero and to fuel his own dark agenda for world domination,” J’onn supplements. 

She had to admit to herself that Lex was certainly ambitious - none of this sounds all that extreme from what she knows of her brother. She thought for a moment and leveled her gaze on Kara. “You and me? We’re one of the things that’s wrong?”

Kara gave her a watery scoff. “You’re the only thing that feels right here. But we’re not together. No matter how much I wish it were true.” Kara held her hands out for Lena to take. 

What would have been second nature only minutes earlier takes wary effort on Lena’s part to do now and Kara’s fingers grip hers tenderly. “I love you in every universe. I have hope that we can get back to what we had here someday,” Kara swears to her and Lena’s heart sinks ominously.

“Let me restore your memories,” J’onn reaches out, waiting until he has Lena’s permission. “Bringing back your memories can be intense,” he warns when she gives him a slight nod. “It’s possible to lose consciousness for a short period of time, but there’s no damage done to the cerebral cortex,” he assures her. 

Kara watches Lena’s eyes as J’onn touches her head. They’re locked on to hers with love and trust and openness and Kara holds on to that feeling, watching the transformation before her. Her expression hardens and the love is replaced with hurt and anger and something bitter and twisted takes over. There’s a good dose of self loathing and humiliation making broad strokes over her features now. And then? 

Detachment. 

Desolation. 

She’s gone. Kara can see she’s lost her all over again. And for what? Why _couldn’t she_ just let this world fend for itself for once? 

For the greater good? What had that gotten her?

Fuck the world. 

Lena pulls her hands away, as if she was disgusted by the thought of touching her and she looks so hurt. So wounded by what Kara’s taken from her again. 

“Lena. Please,” Kara pleads. She doesn’t even know for what. She just wants Lena not to go. “Please don’t hate me again.”

Jaw locked in fury, Lena says nothing as more memories are unlocked and Kara can see her processing and each second fortifies the walls around Lena. 

Lena blinks once and it’s enough of a wake up call that she finally speaks. 

“I’m not feeling well. Could you please take me home,” she addresses J’onn, turning slightly towards him, angling herself away from Kara. 

“I can take you home,” Kara quickly volunteers. 

“I’d prefer you not touch me,” she says calmly, devoid of emotion. 

Kara acknowledges defeat and takes a step back, widening the chasm between them.

“I assume there’s a plan in place to reset the multiverse?”

“Not yet,” J’onn admits. “We’re still in the stages of returning memories to key personnel so we can determine how best to remedy the situation.”

“I see,” Lena answers succinctly. “I’d like to leave now.”

It’s more than Kara can bear to watch Lena leave, but she can’t look away, either. Lena surprises her by stopping in the doorway. “You could have been happy and not said anything. _I_ would have been happy,” Lena points out. 

“Not for long. Not if it’s not real. I won’t sacrifice your happiness for my own again,” Kara vows, acknowledging her own mistake and promise to do better. 

There’s a flicker of recognition in Lena’s eyes. Of love and friendship and maybe even something more in Lena’s expression and it’s just enough. Just enough to eek thread through the eye of the needle of hope before it vanishes again and then she’s gone. 

The hope stays. They can use the thread to patch their tattered remains. To reinforce what was. To make it strong and durable. To make _them_ last this time.


	2. Is It Too Late To Remind You How We Were?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara might not remember what it felt like to be with Lena, but maybe it’s better to make new memories herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like this is the direction my muse is pointing these days.

_Don’t forget to feed Larry._

Kara stares at her phone and the message for a couple long moments before swallowing uncomfortably. 

Had Lena texted the wrong person? 

Who would she be talking to and reminding them to feed .. Larry?

Lena didn’t make tech mistakes. She quickly dismissed the idea of the text sent in error. 

It was somewhat shocking to hear from Lena after she walked out the night before. Kara spent the evening in a funk. Unable to leave the couch and unwilling to say much to Alex, who stayed all night and even went out to get her donuts and coffee this morning. 

“You’re acting like you really broke up with her. You only knew you were together for half a day, Kara,” Alex pointed out. 

Kara buried her face in the couch pillows and stayed there for a long time after that. 

It didn’t feel like half a day. It felt like she’d been in love with her best friend for half her life and lost her. Because that’s what happened. 

After Alex left, she went through the motions of getting ready for work, already exhausted by the time she stepped into the CatCo elevator. 

Now, sitting at her desk littered with empty coffee cups and a full box of donuts (the same box Alex got her that morning), she regarded Lena’s text with morbid curiosity. 

**Who’s Larry?**

The reply was almost instant. 

_Your goldfish?_

Kara’s eyes widened. 

**I HAVE A GOLDFISH?**

This was the greatest day of her life. 

_Not if you don’t feed him!_

Kara looked around furtively before escaping to the nearest exit and whipped off her glasses. She aimed for her apartment and was calling Lena before she even touched down. 

“Where is he?” 

She could almost hear Lena’s eyeroll at her question in lieu of a greeting. 

“On the bookcase by your easel. You moved him over there last weekend so you could paint his portrait,” Lena informed her.

“Who names their goldfish Larry,” Kara scoffed, coming to a stop front of his bowl. “And decorates the bowl to look like a psychiatrists office?” There’s a tiny couch. A chair. Some miniature bookcases. An itty bitty desk. And then there’s Larry. 

Lena remains silent for a moment while Kara gets to know their firstborn fish. Larry regards her with eyes so tiny he looks like he could use a pair of spectacles and perhaps a tweed cardigan for his drafty office. 

“If he hadn’t looked so scholarly, his tank decoration would have been a volcano and we would have named him Shark Bait.”

Kara’s Pavlovian response kicks in. “Ooh hah ha.” 

Lena continues without missing a beat, used to Kara’s idiosyncrasies and goes into in-depth instructions for care. When she’s finished, she’s met with just the soft sounds of Kara’s breathing. It affects her more than it should. Last night was the first night in many months Kara wasn’t beside her, warm and safe and breathing near her ear. There’s a bubble of longing she has to stomp down to continue. 

“Did you hear anything I said?”

“He totally looks like a Larry,” Kara whispers reverently, touching the glass and marveling at the little fella, seemingly interested in following her fingertips around the glass. 

“There’s a feeding and cleaning schedule on the refrigerator. Give him two or three flakes of food a day. If you still see flakes the next time you feed him, you’re giving him too much. And no, he’s not “saving them for a snack later”. Clean his bowl this weekend. There’s a spare bowl and water under the sink on the right side,” Lena summarizes. Kara can look up how to do it. She’s not going to explain it all again.

There’s more silence and Lena determines that it’s Kara now that’s doing the listening. She can’t do this right now. She shouldn’t have said anything or answered her phone. She thinks now she should’ve just snuck in (is it sneaking if you have a key?)while Kara was gone and liberated Larry. 

The words to tell Kara goodbye got stuck in her throat but Kara picked up on her intention anyway. 

“Don’t hang up,” Kara begs, desperate to just _be_ with Lena for a little longer. 

“Kara,” Lena argues with just her name. 

“You don’t have to say anything. Just don’t go yet.”

There’s a sigh of resignation and acceptance and they don’t hang up for a long time. 

The roots of hope expand. 

It’s hard for Lena to reconcile the two sets of memories she has. They overlap and it’s like taking a test with the answers already written in. There’s things she remembers in great detail and other moments that are just there with no context beside what photographic proof might exist. 

She remembers the bitter betrayal and how she felt like a fool. How Lex, the person who regularly used the truth to hurt her, whether it be losing to her at chess, or making her feel inferior to him when she refused to help him create weapons to kill aliens, was the one to deliver the brutal blow of honesty and expose Kara’s lies. 

She remembers hating herself. She remembers hating Kara for hurting her so deeply. 

She also remembers falling asleep in Kara’s arms after making love on a sun drenched couch in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

She easily recalls Kara excitedly tugging her down the aisles at the local pet mart on the weekends when there was dozens of animals up for adoption and how they finally agreed they needed to work up to a cat or a dog given their current busy schedules. 

She also spent far too long going through her phone - half the time with all her media selected and her thumb hovering over the delete button, and the other half viewing them. 

She’d watched herself getting sung to on her birthday and both remembered and saw how Kara had looked just as excited as she did and how she kissed her so sweetly after she blew out the candles, Lena thought she might cry. 

She watched herself getting chased around on the beach during a weekend vacation they took with Alex and Kelly right after they decided they wanted to stop ignoring what they felt. 

Kara “finally” catches her and falls to the ground with her, sand kicking up as they continued to play, their peels of laughter getting picked up every once in a while on the video. It’s so unlike her that it’s almost difficult to watch. But part of her remembers the adrenaline and the love coursing through her veins that weekend and the feeling of wanting to give and share everything with Kara. And not just that weekend, but always.

There’s another photo of them later the same the day that’s more intimate and is printed and framed and sits on her dresser. 

Kelly took the shot, as she remembers it. Alex would have just made gagging noises. 

The sun is setting low behind them, painting the sky in deep oranges and reds and the fire pit in front of their beach house burns at an almost bonfire size thanks to Alex’s pyromaniac tendencies and Kara’s laser vision eliminating the need to search for a lighter. 

She’s plastered to Kara’s side and looking right at the camera. Her smile is open and confident and she looked _claimed_ , for lack of a better word, and damn happy about it.

Kara’s kissing the side of her head, peaceful and content and she can almost hear herself whispering to Kara that she loves her. Can still feel the way Kara’s lips pulled into a smile against her hair and feel her warmth surrounding her when she says it back. 

She wakes up to a dead battery and Lex pretending to have made a deal to keep her memories intact when he saved her from the anti-matter wave. She plays along because anything else, like alerting him that Kara and J’onn have already gotten to her, would have escalated quickly and disastrously.

* * *

**Proof of life.**

There’s a photo of Larry and a copy of the days newspaper, the date helpfully pointed out by Kara’s finger waiting in Lena’s text messages the following morning. Kara’s also drawn an arrow and labeled the fish by name in case Lena was unclear of the goldfish’s identity. 

A couple of hours later another photo comes through, this time Kara has drawn glasses on the fish. **Still Larry** she’s labeled helpfully. 

It hits Lena in the chest and she’s not sure if Kara is drawing a parallel between herself and Larry, still being the same person in spite of a suit or glasses, or if she’s just being cute and subconsciously reminding Lena she’s still her best friend. Either way, Lena avoids looking at her phone the rest of the day. 

The next day, she receives another photo. This time it’s of Kara sitting at her dining room table, a half empty plate in front her and Larry with a mostly empty plate and an empty glass of wine in front of his bowl. Kara pretends to be mid-laugh at the joke Larry tells her. 

**What did the fish say when he ran into the wall?**

**Dam.**

Lena’s lip twitches, but she does not smile or respond to the text. 

But she does roll her eyes. 

The following day Kara sends a photoshopped picture of she and Larry sitting in a row boat, fishing. Larry is sporting a tiny fisherman’s hat, complete with little hooks attached to the brim of it and his pole is dangling in the water. There’s a basket between them with what looks like two or three fishtails sticking out and Kara’s expression is a mixture of awkwardness with a dash of “ew” and a sprinkle of worry. 

Kara may have too much time on her hands in this universe. 

She doesn’t respond to this one, either. But she does save it to the camera roll (as she’s done with all of Larry’s recent adventures).

The pictures keep coming over the next couple of days and Lena saves them all and her favorite was probably the one of Kara eating cheddar goldfish with Larry watching in wide-eyed horror and Kara looking incredibly guilty as she hides the bag of them in the follow up pic. 

Lena stays up late that night, hoping to be awake when Kara hopefully sends another picture and the feeling that Kara was building up to something. 

She races to open her phone when it dings and this one _does_ make her smile. Rather wistfully, too. 

Kara has tucked Larry in his bowl into bed and is lying beside him, reading him a bedtime story. It’s the sweetest, dorkiest and dumbest thing she’s ever seen and she misses Kara so much that she isn’t even conflicted when she sees the bubble appear to indicate Kara’s sending a text message. 

**Larry wants to know if you’ll go with him to the park tomorrow at four? There’s a kite festival he’s dying to see.**

She hesitates only a second. 

_Make sure you bring his sunscreen this time. See you there._

She’s perfectly aware that Kara is extending the branch and trying to reopen the lines of communication beyond whatever dance it is they’re doing right now. 

She’s perfectly aware that by saying yes, she’s entering into negotiations for some kind of relationship with Kara. She thinks maybe it’s time to see if there’s anything left to save.


	3. Do The Things That You Always Wanted To

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are FIGHTING!

Kara spots her first at the entrance to the park, her smile wide and genuine and it’s impossible to miss how happy she is to see her. 

Lena isn’t smiling, though. Kara sees this and Lena’s heart sinks as Kara adjusts her features to match her own as they greet each other. 

“You’re here.” Kara almost seems surprised.

“Well, Larry invited me,” Lena answers lightly, wondering if this wasn’t a mistake. 

Not because she was worried they couldn’t work things out. 

Because she was fearful of how quickly they could and she’s still clinging to the sense of Kara doing her wrong and the lengths she went to to protect herself from that ever happening again. From anyone. 

“Working?” She nods at the notepad in Kara’s hand and the camera around her neck. 

Kara nods sheepishly. “When I mentioned my plans for the afternoon to Nia, Andrea overheard and decided it might be a nice fluff piece for the local community.”

“Andrea is nothing if not opportunistic,” Lena comments, turning away from Kara briefly so they can keep up with the semi formed line of people entering the park. It’s all she can do to keep from reaching out just a few inches and taking Kara’s hand in hers. She makes a tight fist instead and holds it stiffly at her side.

Kara notices and casually edges away. She doesn’t want Lena to feel crowded by her, even if she doesn’t like consciously distancing herself. 

She clears her throat awkwardly, looking straight ahead at the back of a strangers head instead of at Lena. “I understand if this is harder than you thought it would be,” she starts, giving Lena an out if she needs it. “But I’m really glad to see you,” she finished candidly.

“You’re very persistent,” Lena admits. 

“I can’t tell if you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Neither can I.”

Kara accepts the answer and it’s honesty as it is and keeps rolling, trying to stick with lighter topics. “How was your week?” She cringes internally as soon as it passed her lips. 

Lena looks down for a moment, deciding how to answer. Finally she just gives up one word. “Hard.”

Kara can’t help drifting closer in spite of her best intentions not to crowd her. “Same.”

Lena glances briefly at her and there’s something in her expression that makes Kara feel defensive. As if Lena doesn’t believe her nor wants to acknowledge that Kara has any right to be upset. 

“I lost my best friend twice, Lena. Even if it’s my own fault, I’m still allowed to feel like shit about it.” She didn’t bother mentioning the third time she lost Lena along with everyone else she loved when they all just ceased to exist. 

Lena bites down hard on her tongue to keep her chin from wobbling and her eyes from watering. Kara’s voice was tight with emotion and it’s the first time she can remember Kara, not Supergirl trying to justify it, speaking up for herself and the ugly truth gains ground with her. 

For a change, she acknowledges the kernel of truth. Like Kara isn’t just feeling guilty because she’s supposed to. For a hot minute Lena even acknowledges she had a knee jerk reaction and blew things out of proportion and is tenaciously committed to it because she knows no other way to react. They both got burned. They were both trying to deal. 

She doesn’t know how long she’s caught up in her own thoughts but she snaps out of it when she sees that they’ve stopped walking and that they’ve reached the center of the park.

There’s dozens of kites in the almost cloudless sky. Some are intricate and enormous. Some are delicate and dainty. Some are homemade with popsicle sticks, paper shopping bags and love. Some are having a hard time getting off the ground. 

It’s that one that has Kara’s attention. There’s a little girl, no more than six or seven and she’s running with all her might, trying to get her kite to catch the wind but it’s mostly just bouncing off the grass in choppy intervals.

Her parent is nearby, but a little preoccupied by another child’s mother to pay any real attention to the struggles of his daughter. 

Kara takes a few photos of the sky and of the activity around them before approaching the girl. Lena watches Kara interact with her and also takes a look at the kite she’s trying to fly. She can see that the problem is one she won’t be able to defeat today. The construction is fine - the kite is simply too heavy for the light breeze National City is experiencing today. 

Lena notices that she seems to have drawn the attention of Kara and the girl and she’s summoned closer. She gives the child her best smile and feels a little surge of pride at how excited she seems to be to meet her. 

“This is Emily, and she is a fan,” Kara proudly introduces her. 

“What a coincidence! I’m a fan of you and your beautiful kite,” Lena reaches out to shake Emily’s hand and gets hugged instead. 

“My friend Luka doesn’t get picked on at school anymore because of you,” Emily explains. 

“Luka is Aquarian,” Kara helpfully fills in the blanks. The image inducer is changing and saving lives and Kara couldn’t be more proud for her and it shows. 

“I’m very glad I could help your friend.”

“Kara wants to interview me about my kite but it doesn’t even work,” Emily looks at her kite with disappointment. “I want to go to MIT and if they ever catch wind of this, I’ll never get in,” she states rather dramatically as only a child can. 

Lena smiles encouragingly. “I think it will work perfectly. We just need a windier day,” Lena picks up the kite and gives it a closer inspection. It’s not as heavy as she feared, but still not as light as it could be. 

She gives Emily some ideas for lightening it, showing her where to reinforce it and where to consider trimming some of the material. Emily listens and nods along with Lena in rapt attention. 

“I think you should give it another try,” Kara suggests. “I definitely want to get a shot of it in the sky for my article.”

“Kara,” Lena starts, gently, not wanting Kara to get Emily’s hopes up. 

“Just try,” Kara repeats, giving Emily a friendly pat on the arm. “Sometimes a little hope goes a long way.”

Emily shrugs and finds a clear spot to run in. 

“It’s too heavy,” Lena argues quietly. 

Kara ignores her naysaying, smiling at Emily and giving her a thumbs up. 

Emily lowers her head in determination and races over the grass, faster than she’s ever run, her kite keeping pace with her. Kara purses her lips nearly imperceptibly and Lena watches along with everyone else as the kite gains altitude. 

Up, up and away it goes and everyone that has watched Emily try and fail for the last hour to get her kite going cheer for her. Emily has stopped running and lets the line out carefully as her kite soars, her face lit up with unbridled excitement. 

Kara keeps blowing until its high enough to catch the updraft on its own and she and Lena stand shoulder to shoulder, watching it float and bob in the sky. 

“Supergirl can’t always be there to fix things for her,” Lena points out. It’s not that she doesn’t think that Kara did a really sweet thing. It’s just that she knows first hand that relying on Supergirl/Kara can backfire in harmful ways. 

“Well, today she can.”

She takes a dozen more photos before letting the camera hang loosely once more. They’re standing so close now that Lena could easily rest her head on Kara’s shoulder. The desire and the habit to do just that are so strong that Lena feels she needs to fight to keep her head still. 

Eventually the breeze all but dies and most pilots are reigning their kites back in. Emily grabs her kite and barrels around a few people, proudly clutching her kite in her hand as she all but skids to a stop in front of them. “Did you get the money shot?” She wonders excitedly. 

“I sure did!” She motions Emily closer so she can see the pictures Kara took and points out her favorite. 

“One more for the magazine?” Kara asks and Emily nods enthusiastically. “Get in there, Ms Luthor,” she lightly nudges Lena with her elbow in Emily’s direction. 

“Really??” Emily’s excitement at the prospect of having her picture taken with her idol dispelled any resistance Lena had. She tries not to think about how Lex would be pleased with the good PR and throws her arm around Emily’s shoulder and gives Kara a mega smile that causes a slight delay. 

Kara’s never seen anyone more beautiful and she’s effectively stunned by it and the honor she has of seeing it.

“Take the picture!” Emily yells, startling her. 

“Take the picture, darling,” Lena echoes, though much gentler and without noticing the slipped term of endearment. 

Kara beams and takes eight pictures. But no one needs to know that.

* * *

It’s another week before they see each other again. There’s newly upgraded labs opening at Luthor Corp and a ceremony to go along with it and Supergirl gets paraded around like a show pony for the occasion. 

She’s beside Lena, hands on her hips in her signature pose while the cameras roll and shoot and capture every god awful moment for posterity. 

Master showman that he is, Lex jokes and charms his way through several question, never giving a straight answer and always leaving interpretation the burden for everyone else to carry. A few questions get directed to Supergirl and she answers directly in contradiction to Lex’s style. 

There’s even a question for Lena and the nature of it has Supergirl wanting to use the columnist as a training dummy. 

“What’s on the horizon for you and Kara Danvers now that you’ve dumped CatCo off on Andrea Rojas?”

“I would think that a quality publication such as the one you work for would be more interested in Ms Luthors groundbreaking research and development in positron emission tomography and making the technology affordable for health care facilities world wide and the millions of lives she’s helping to save each year. Or, did you want to also ask Lex who he is wearing today?”

The reporter contains a sneer while Lex charmingly jumps in with a playful, “Its Ferragamo. And I think what Supergirl was trying to say is that the Luthors excel at improving humanity,” he tries to smooth over. 

“No. What I was trying to say is that the question was bullshit and offensive.” Supergirl allows Lena to push her behind the curtains and out of sight. 

“What the hell, Supergirl? It was a fluff question and I could have handled it without you stomping in like a child to defend me. I don’t need or want your help!” Lena fumes. 

“I never said you did!”

Lex storms up to them and Lena is quickly escorted away, the press conference apparently over. She goes more than willingly, still upset with Supergirl so Kara lets it slide. 

“You don’t speak unless I tell you to, Kryptonian,” he says icily. “Never take a question that’s meant for a Luthor ever again.”

“I don’t work for you,” Supergirl reminds him. 

“But your sister. Does. And so does mine,” Lex spells out and they both know he’s not above toying with them and ruining their lives just for fun or to keep Supergirl in line. “How is Larry these days?” Lex taunts. Kara visibly vibrates with rage. “Lena does so enjoy receiving his pictures.”

She could kill him several million different ways in less than a second and each one would be more satisfying than the next. But she can’t. Because they need to know what he did to alter the multiverse. And the smug son of an actual bitch knows it.

* * *

Kara doesn’t need to use her X-ray vision to see that it’s Lena standing outside her door. 

No. The clipped heels stomping down her hallway and the sharp and heavy pounding on her door are obvious enough. 

She stands from her blanket nest on the couch and crosses her arms over her chest as she pulls the door open and steps aside. 

Lena storms through, flinging the door shut behind her as she turns on Kara. 

“Are you out of your mind? Why would you intentionally try to work Lex up?”

“You shouldn’t be here. Lex is tracking you and has access to your phone,” Kara calmly informs her, not moving from her spot by the door. 

“Of course he does! This is Lex Luthor you’re talking about,” Lena grouses. 

That certainly gets Kara’s attention. “You knew?”

“Lex has been hacking my phone since I was fifteen, Kara. Of course I knew.”

Kara stares at Lena, slack jawed and offended on her behalf. 

“None of this is new to me nor requires you to charge to my defense. 

There’s counter measures he _allows_ me to have here in your apartment to stop him from using our phones to listen in on us because listening to his sister getting railed by Supergirl is a line that even Lex Luthor is hesitant to cross.”

Kara’s mind ping pongs between the box in her closet, Lena staring at her with undisguised anger and something else intense and unfamiliar, and the absolute _what in the actual fuck_ moment she’s having of feeling violated in her own home. 

“I’ll kill him,” Kara snarls, the wave of fierce protectiveness crashes over her so strongly that it’s only Lena’s sudden grip on her forearms that keeps her grounded, both literal and metaphorically. 

“No. You won’t. We need him to figure out how to reverse the deal he made with The Monitor. It is not your job nor your concern -“

“Yes it is!”

Lena shakes her head, trying to get through to Kara. “It’s not.”

“Stop saying that!” Kara breaths heavily, emotionally charged like Lena’s never seen. “It is. You’re my family. My home. Even if you never forgive me or love me ever again, I will always protect yu -“

Lena attacks Kara’s face with her own, kissing her so hard their teeth clack together violently. Kara lets out a surprised “oof” noise before her arms come up around Lena and trap her against her in case Lena has any ideas of getting away now and finally, _finally_ Kara gets to know what it is to kiss Lena.


	4. Don’t Think, Just Do

**What’s brown and sticky?**

**Give up?**

**A STICK!**

The photo that followed of Larry and Kara playing fetch, with Larry a foot above his bowl and a giant stick between his fish lips made it nearly impossible not to grin at her two children during her monthly progress evaluation with Lex. Every other employee had them once a year, but Lex liked to make Lena feel as small as possible as often as possible. 

You know, as a good brother does.

Three nights ago she ferociously stormed Kara’s apartment, kissed her, called her an idiot and promptly left. She imagines Kara probably stood in the same spot in a daze for at least two minutes because that’s what she did the first time she kissed _other_ Kara. Minus the name calling, of course. 

Fifteen minutes later, when she was having a panic attack in the back seat of her chauffeured Bentley, Kara texted her. 

**Come back.**

With shaky hands, she sent her reply. After everything they’d been through, she owed it to her to respond. 

_I can’t_

She wished she could say more, but she couldn’t. Not without her walls completely dropping and leaving herself wide open to Kara hurting her all over again. 

She watched the dialog bubbles appear and her heart couldn’t help dread/buzz with excitement over what Kara would say next.

The bubbles disappeared then returned a couple minutes later. Then disappeared again. This was all very stressful as she watched in real time Kara say something and then delete it time and time again. Finally the bubbles appeared one last time and then the message came through. 

**I understand**

Her heart plummeted. 

She wished she couldn’t feel the pain in those two words. She wished she couldn’t imagine how sad Kara must look. Or how heartbroken she must feel. 

Over the last few days she starting worrying more about Kara. She hadn’t done that in months. Not since the day she shot Lex. Everything has been numb or negative until Kara picked her back up again. 

She wished that the heaviness in her heart hadn’t tripled. 

“Harold, please turn the car around,” she managed without her voice breaking too much. 

“Forget something at Ms Danvers, Ma’am?” Harold asked casually. As if he wasn’t going to report back to Lex. She didn’t care. Knew Harold, like everyone else Lex leaned on, didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t personal. Except it absolutely was. 

When she stood in front of Kara’s door this time and knocked timidly with her head bowed down, she knew Kara would still hear it, but she wasn’t sure she’d answer. She rather hoped she would, for a multitude of reasons, the least of which being she sent Harold away. Her head darts up at the sound of the door being opened. 

Kara doesn’t look surprised to see her, nor does she very look happy about it, either. Her eyes are red, puffy, her nose about the same. The Paragon Of Hope doesn’t have any to spare. 

“What do you want, Lena?” Kara hasn’t moved aside to let Lena in. Apparently, Kara needs a physical barrier where all Lena’s walls are metaphoric and insurmountable unless your name is Kara Danvers. 

That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it?

“You.” 

Lena doesn’t miss the way Kara’s breath stutters or how her neck muscles strain. 

“Is this your plan to break me? To make me fall further in love with you so you can dangle hope just out of reach and then snatch it away? Is that what makes you happy now? Because I’m trying to figure out if letting you hate me is what’s best.”

Okay. Ouch. 

Lena couldn’t fault her for questioning her sudden change of heart. But it wasn’t sudden. It wasn’t a change. She’s always wanted Kara. 

“I didn’t know how to let you back in without destroying me again. Surely you must know you have more power over me than anyone. No one else has ever come close. Not Andrea, nor Jack, or James.”

“So what’s changed?” Kara wonders, arms folded over her chest protectively. 

Lena shrugs helplessly. “Honestly? Nothing. It just hurts too much to stay away anymore.”

Kara dips her head in deliberation and Lena doesn’t miss the way her face crumpled momentarily in abject misery. 

Her head raised up to meet Lena’s gaze. Lena can see that Kara has to work up her courage for whatever is coming next. 

“If you come inside then that’s it. No more hot/cold. You’re either here for all of it, or you leave it alone and we both move forward by ourselves. I won’t stop protecting you, but I will start protecting myself.” Kara’s gaze is determined and doesn’t falter, but the line of her jaw tics and her teeth are clenched together to keep her chin from wobbling. 

She plotted and schemed to exact not exactly her revenge, though it certainly resembled it, but her solution to the human condition of betrayal and feeling so belittled and worthless. She saw Non Nocere as a vaccination with Myriad providing mass inoculation meant to protect everyone.

It was all for naught. She sees that now. Because this? Seeing the most powerful being in the universe laying herself wide open to her and knowing she alone has the same power to devastate? Means more than a thousand apologies. 

She needed time in between re-learning Kara’s identity and now. Time to be angry and lash out. Time for another version of herself with Kara to absorb their love and realize that while Kara had absolutely lied, that it was done with the noble intentions that Kara exhibited with everything she did and tinged with the selfish thought that she could have a life separate from Supergirl that she could share with just Lena.

She doesn’t have to remember the way they feel about each other, _the way they love each other_ , because she feels it _now_ , and knows their love has the power to heal as well. 

Lena holds her hand out and places her palm over Kara’s chest where her heart is beating strong and steady. 

“This is where I want to be. Right here,” Lena tells her as earnestly as she can.

“Be sure. Because once you’re in, I’m not letting you go. Ever,” Kara warned. One last chance for Lena to get away if she wasn’t going to stay. 

Lena dropped her gaze for just a second before she applied pressure and pushed her out of the doorway so she could come inside. Once she was over the threshold and the door was closed behind her, she kept walking Kara backwards, not stopping until she’d backed her all the way up to the refrigerator. 

The somberness in Kara’s expression changed into one of hope and love and she grinned as she bounced lightly off the refrigerator and, oh noes, rebounded right into Lena’s arms. 

There’s a crushing hug between them and Kara eventually buries her face against Lena’s neck. Her hand goes into her hair, running through it repeatedly, exactly duplicating one of the things she desperately missed about her _other_ Kara. Apparently, all Kara’s read the same Lena manual. 

When they part, the don’t really separate so much as they just lower their arms and stop squeezing. Kara’s not taking any chances of letting Lena go and Lena is more than happy to stay right where she is. 

Lena returns a soft smile from Kara her before growing serious one more time. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. Sorry for how she’d hurt Kara and used their friendship against her. For how she behaved. For using her own hurt to enable the shitty things she tried to do. 

“Me too. I’m sorry I hurt you. I never want you to ever feel that pain again. Especially from me.”

“If we get this multiverse settled -“

“When,” Kara corrects her.

“ _When_ ,” Lena starts again, “it happens, I’m going to face some pretty serious charges. I need to answer for them.”

Kara nods somberly. “I know. Alex and I have talked about it.” Kara is obviously deliberating what to say next and Lena grips her hips to encourage her to continue. 

“Whatever you need to say, say it.”

“Is there any way to detect if someone has been under the influence of Q waves? Would there be any distinguishing traces left behind?”

Lena pursed her lips, genuinely unsure of the answer. “I’m not sure. Theoretically, I suppose there would be measurable altered beta waves. Why? I can’t do what I did before. The Q waves are a different frequency here, if that’s a concern.”

“It’s not,” Kara quickly assures her. “It’s just.. Lex wasn’t dead for very long. And the things you did and the way you acted? That’s not you. The whole time at the Fortress and then at Norquay and even before that, I just kept thinking ‘this is not my best friend. This is **not** my Lena.’ I know you, Lena. _I know you._ ”

Lena swallowed harshly - thinking back to how many times she hadn’t felt like something was necessarily wrong, but that something wasn’t right. She’d chalked it up to grief and bitter anger - but now she has to consider. 

“You think Lex was using Q waves on me. Directing me.”

Kara nodded minutely. “I think it’s something we need to find out,” she tells Lena, her voice soft and reassuring. “But not right this instant,” she clarified, a small smile forming as her arms tighten around Lena’s waist and Lena sways closer. 

There’s a rolling mass of disgust and hate for her brother in her stomach, but she lets it go for now, not about to let Lex intrude on her time with Kara. 

Learning that Lena kisses like she does everything else is quite the thrill for Kara. She’s single minded, thorough, dedicated and frighteningly intense and precise. 

She’s also soft and sweet and touches Kara like she’s simultaneously afraid she’ll disappear or break. When she leans in and slowly captures her lips, Kara’s knows if she wasn’t positive before that she was in love with her best friend, this kiss would have cemented it. 

When they come up for air a few minutes later Kara can’t decide if Lena’s fight for oxygen and surprised look is due to her realization that they were actually doing this whole relationship thing (again, for Lena), or because Kara caught on so quickly and kissed the common sense right out of her. 

Her kiss swollen lips and wide eyes look nearly black in the low light of her apartment and Kara’s wants to taste her lips again so badly she’s scared she may lose control and hurt Lena. She takes a few fortifying breaths and feels her determination to protect Lena above all else fall back into place. 

She reaches out, snags Lena’s blouse where it used to be tucked in (when had THAT happened, she wondered?) between her fingers and tugs her towards the couch. Not forcefully. Not aggressively. She’s letting Lena decide if she wants the kissing to continue or not and Lena is going willingly, toeing off her heels along the way. 

Kara’s smile glows just as much as it grows the longer she’s caught up in Lena’s gravity. 

Lena can’t help but huff indignantly when Kara lowers her face and rests their foreheads together. 

This has always been inevitable.

There’s a flashback to Lena’s other set of memories and she almost gets lost in them before remembering she has the real thing, right in front of her and hers for the taking. 

She wants to try something. Something her memories have been taunting her with for too many nights. 

Without a word of explanation she pushes her hands just inside the waistband of Kara’s loose fitting lounge wear, easing them down low enough on Kara’s hips for what she has in mind. 

Thus far, her Kryptonian is being a good sport, letting Lena do this with nothing more than a raised eyebrow or two, but Lena can see and feel Kara’s abdominal muscles contract under her hands in anticipation of whatever Lena plans to do with all that new land. 

Lena has memories. Memories of how soft and smooth Kara’s skin is in contrast to the steely muscle and tissue just below the surface. She has memories of dragging her body over it and of being pinned beneath it, arching and aching for more. She has memories of what her lips feel like ghosting over her Kara’s body and watching in aroused delirium the way Kara squirmed and sighed in pleasure. 

All of that will come again soon enough, she knows. But she has to see if her memory of holding Kara by her hips, of resting her hands on obliques sculptured by the gods, are in fact custom made for her hands and hers alone. 

They are.

It feels like she’s holding her home in her hands when her thumbs align perfectly along the dips and planes of Kara’s muscles. Another knot of uncertainty and anger that’s been keeping her heart from beating fully loosens and falls away. 

She stops herself from moaning like a half-crazed succubus when she remembers holding Kara from behind with her hands right there is impossibly even better. 

She feels the puff of Kara’s breath across her face and is again reminded that as much as she dreamt of holding and touching Kara so intimately, that Kara _loses her mind_ frequently under her attention. With their emotions heightened right now and the thrill of this touch being new to Kara, Lena thinks it’s best to let them cool down a little. The hooded gaze in Kara’s eyes and the heat radiating off her body confirm she’s making the right call.

She begrudgingly removes her hold on Kara and even tugs her lounge pants back into place before giving Kara a peck on the lips. 

“Have you eaten?”

Kara shakes her head and makes a bit of a face, half aroused by Lena and half aroused at the mention of food. She was a simple woman with simple needs. 

“I was sort of waiting for you. Figured you’d show up eventually. Is the tandoori chicken from the Bombay grill place down the street still a favorite?”

Dammit. Lena hates to be predictable. She’ll have to work on surprising Kara more. Tomorrow. Probably. “Yes?”

“It showed up a few minutes after you left. I wasn’t expecting a hit and run,” Kara shrugs, insufferably smug. 

Lena crushes the fabric of Kara’s sweater in her hand, leaning up on her toes to give Kara a kiss in apology, in a promise to do better, and a kiss for being so clever. And then one more, because she could. “Set the table and I’ll heat it up?”

Kara nodded, her head in a bit of a fog. 

“That’s cheating!” Lena called over her shoulder after feeling a quick blast of air, knowing Kara took advantage of her super speed to set the table. She takes care of setting things up in the microwave while Kara moves around behind her, opening a bottle of her favorite red that she made sure is always stocked at Kara’s. 

Kara joins her at the counter, sliding an around her waist as she does so. 

“Is this okay?” 

Lena smiles and scoots closer and turns into Kara, letting her wrap both arms around her as she sinks into Kara’s chest. “Mmhmm. Thank you for asking, but it’s not necessary. I miss your hugs. I miss touching you and you touching me.”

Kara presses a kiss into Lena’s hair. “Can you stay?” 

“Would you like me to?”

There’s an answering squeeze that forces the air out of her lungs, Kara making good on her vow to not let Lena go. 

“Guess it’s settled then,” Lena chuckled once the air returned to her lungs. 

“Do you want to change into some comfy clothes? I can handle things here,” Kara offered and after the day Lena’s had, she happily agrees. 

When Lena returns, her hair is pulled back to prevent it from falling in her face over dinner and she’s pushing the sleeves up on Kara’s blue jersey. Her lips thin out into a wide smile when she sees the soft glow of candles on the dining table and Larry’s bowl off to the side so he can join them for dinner. 

Kara looks a bit shy and uncertain and Lena happily rewards her thoughtfulness with a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. It looks beautiful,” she compliments. Kara preens at her words, so happy to see Lena looking relaxed and open and not hurling hurtful words her way anymore. 

“That shirt looks familiar,” Kara observes, a sly grin forming when Lena shrugs nonchalantly. They both know Lena has ample comfy clothes of her own stored here. “Don’t give Larry any chicken - it gives him gas,” she mentions casually. 

_Larry watched from his observation deck as his humans performed their dietary rituals. In his superior form, his need for sustenance only needed met once every cycle, whereas his blonde human seemed to need multiple feedings every cycle. Highly inefficient in his opinion._

_He could tell by the vibrations against his precisely calibrated scales that the humans were happy. He hadn’t felt anything similar since the multiverse funneled into Earth Prime. A small bubble escaped as he contemplated how unimaginative that label was._

_Sounds like some The Monitor would have made up._

_Who listens to a being that designs their scales like that, he scoffed._

_He couldn’t wait to report back to Krona everything he’s learned. He hoped that wouldn’t happen for a while, though. He was really enjoying his adventures with blonde human. She was pleasing and made him feel something almost akin to fun while his dark haired human made sure he stayed on a precise feeding schedule and kept his observation deck spotless. Often she would stand near his observation deck and the vibrations against it were soothing and relaxing. He appreciated that about her._

_He took his three second nap and awoke refreshed and continued observing. When the humans were away, he’d log his findings._

_It seemed his humans were back to feeding each other again. Oddly, he found that they performed this ritual in every room, not just in the dining area. He didn’t understand why they didn’t just stick to the utensils that were obviously meant to serve that purpose. But he was used to his humans strange habits he supposed. Oh dear. Blonde human was relocating his deck again. He hated this part._

“Do you want to talk or watch a movie, or both?” Kara threw the hand towel she was finished using over her shoulder into the hamper beside the washer, dinner and kitchen tidied with Lena’s help. 

“Sure,” she agreed, grasping Kara’s hand in her own and leading them into the living room. “Lay down,” she instructed, grabbing the remote while Kara smiles, but obediently followed orders and grabbed a pillow for her head.

“Oh. Hi,” Kara smiled as Lena crawled on top of her, making herself comfortable on her KaraPillow, as if she’d done it a hundred times before. She probably had, Kara reasoned. 

“Too fast?” Lena wondered, handing over the remote for Kara to operate. 

“I like it.”

They don’t sleep much that night. Sometimes they conversed, an easy exchange of information between them and catching up with each other’s lives, but mostly there was a companionable silence. There was an abundance of kisses and touches. (Baffling Larry.) There were even a few naps, but they don’t bother moving to the bed, content and comfortable right where they were. 

It makes for a very long day and they head straight for the bed this time and are sound asleep by seven that evening, comfortably tangled together. The only text communication between them that day was a couple photos of Larry, hovering midair with his own cape billowing in the breeze, a tiny mask over his eyes and a newspaper headline reading “SuperLarry Assists Girl of Steel”

The next photo of Larry superimposed over an actual photo of Lex as he and Supergirl accept an award draws a sharp bark of laughter that has Lena’s assistant hesitantly knocking to see if she’s okay. Lena looks up from her sent heart message and stonily replies she’s fine.

Though Kara doesn’t have memories of her life with Lena before Earth Prime, she doesn’t seem at all surprised to find Lena a third night in a row in her apartment. Tonight, she’s in the kitchen, cooking for them when she gets home and Kara’s not annoyed to be suddenly sharing her space - she’s just very happy to see Lena and to spend time with her.

After dinner, Kara sprawls out on the couch in what Lena lovingly calls her old man pajamas, Netflix playing quietly in the background while Lena sits comfortably sideways in the chair closest to the couch, bare legs dangling over the arm, head down and engrossed in her tablet.

“Lena?” She gets a distracted noice of acknowledgment and Kara forged ahead, nerves be damned. “You know that box in the closet?”

Kara certainly has her attention now, but she keeps her head down to keep Kara from getting too flustered as she’s prone to do. 

“Yes.”

“Were we - Am I...WasITerribleInBed?” Kara finally pushes her question out. 

Lena’s head shoots up. “What? Where is this coming from,” Lena wondered, genuinely perplexed. Kara was hands down (her pants) the best lover she’d ever had.

“It’s a big box, Lena. I’m not even sure what half that stuff is for. I just didn’t know if it was because I was so terrible that I couldn’t please you without ..assistance,” Kara finished, slightly nauseous at what Lena’s answer might be.

Lena puts her tablet aside and joins Kara on the couch, blanketing Kara with her own body. “Listen to me, darling. Very soon you’re going to discover we are extremely compatible and we’re going to be very, _very_ satisfied by each other,” Lena informs her, chin resting on Kara’s sternum. She punctuates her statement with a patented lift of her eyebrow. 

Kara blushes hotly and it’s an adorably sexy sight to behold. She smiles dreamily at Lena, more than pleased to have Lena’s feelings on the matter stated so clearly.

“So we’re just kinky?” Kara cheekily lifts an eyebrow of her own. 

Lena can’t contain her smile or breathy giggle and it seems to soothe Kara even further.

“That’s part of it. But part of it has to do with you - not in a bad way,” Lena’s quick to establish. “Sometimes when we’re intimate, you feel like you’re getting so aroused that you can’t stay in control. You’re frightened you’ll hurt me, but you also don’t want us to have to stop. The box is a compromise.”

“I _do_ worry about that. Constantly, lately,” Kara admits, pulling Lena’s hair tie free so she can play with Lena’s hair. 

“Well, now you don’t have to. There’s already a solution and when we reach that point, you don’t have to be scared.” Lena hoped they reached that point soon. Sure, she loved every aspect of this new beginning. Couldn’t have been more ecstatic about it. But, being so near to Kara on a regular basis and having the touch barrier erased between them was torture in the sweetest of ways. In her memories, they’d gotten down pretty quickly once they’d figured out they were more than friends. Very quickly, in fact. 

Still, if Kara needed time to be ready, time she would get it. No pressure, and no questions asked. She maneuvers around until they can both comfortably see the television. “What are we watching?”

“Dark Matter.”

“Mm. Hot android,” Lena commented, her eyes quickly losing focus and the battle to stay open with one of Kara’s hands in her hair and the other tracing aimless patterns on her shoulder. 

Lex was droning on and on, smugly telling her that it wasn’t good enough for a Luthor to merely be smart and successful. They had to dominate and destroy any weakness or threat to their continued success. Soon enough he was wrapping things up, making sure to pin one last Luthor observation/dig at Lena’s expense. 

“You’re spending a lot of time with Supergirl again. I do hope this isn’t another one of your weaknesses I’ll have to clean up after.”

“Not at all, brother. You have your agenda and I have mine,” she responds cryptically, ever the Luthor. She gambles if Lex is focusing on her relationship with Kara, he won’t pay as much attention to her Q wave research. 

He tilts his head in acknowledgement, evidentially pleased with the implication that Lena was simply toying with Kara’s heart, instead of the truth that she was guarding it fiercely.

“Hell hath no fury,” he smirks. 

If he only knew the truth in those words, he would be afraid, not smug.


	5. Madness In My Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She doesn’t bother turning on the interior lights in the cabin of her sleek jet - what’s coming in from the hanger is more than enough to see by - and pours herself three fingers worth of her favorite scotch. She takes a seat in one of the slick leather seats - the same seat she had when Kara looked right into her eyes and promised “no matter what, we are always on the same side.”
> 
> Not this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn’t a route I ever intended to address with this story - but I couldn’t stop myself from doing it, in spite of really trying to distract myself with other ideas. My only hope is that it doesn’t come across as letting anyone off the hook or forcing too much into one chapter. 
> 
> Also, all mentions of cats and personalities are based purely on me. 🙄

The results in front her weren’t all that interesting by this point. It was the third time she ran the same test and the third time she received the same results. 

She’d figured out how to detect if someone’s brain waves were ever altered by Q waves. It wasn’t all that hard once she determined how to get base results. Then she scanned herself. And then twice more. She could see where she had _used_ Q waves, but there was no evidence to support the theory they’d been used on her. 

So, no. They weren’t all that interesting. 

But they were absolutely devastating. 

It was her. 

She did it.

Lex has nothing to do with it. 

Every despicable thought and deed was all her and all on her. She could practically hear Lex laughing at her as she reached under her desk and yanked the trash bin free and leaned just in time to empty the contents of her stomach into it instead of on the floor. 

Kara. Eve. Malefic. 

All her. 

It takes nearly an hour to regain some semblance of composure before she shuts down her computer and drifts out of her office on autopilot, her purse and her phone left behind in a desk drawer. All she takes is the cash in her wallet and a prepaid ‘just in case’ credit card from her safe and stuffs them in her pocket. 

She doesn’t know where to go. 

She can’t face Lex. 

She absolutely can’t see Kara anymore. She’s not safe to be around.

Lena wanders around the city, falling in with the flow of walking traffic until she finds herself lost in National City. She spots a cab by chance and climbs in, giving the driver a few hundred to forget she was there and directs them to the airport where she finds herself in the section for private hangers. 

She uses the code used by the maintenance crew to gain access to the Luthor hanger. A motion activated sensor has the overhead light banks coming to life and she bypasses the three helicopters and Lex’s obnoxious jet for her own. 

She doesn’t bother turning on the interior lights in the cabin of her sleek jet - what’s coming in from the hanger is more than enough to see by - and pours herself three fingers worth of her favorite scotch. She takes a seat in one of the slick leather seats - the same seat she had when Kara looked right into her eyes and promised “no matter what, we are always on the same side.”

Not this time. 

She’s two glasses in to the scotch when she sees a figure observing her from fifty feet away. 

She finishes what’s left in her glass and pours herself a refill and waits like a man on death row that’s just finished their last meal for the new inevitable.

* * *

Kara worries something is off when she doesn’t hear from Lena at all that afternoon. Her picture of Larry and a couple other texts go unread. 

She could absolutely be caught up in the lab or some emergency meeting - but she’s not. Kara just _knows_. The energy is all wrong. 

By 5:30 she’s reaching out with her powers, trying to find Lena’s heartbeat. 

She finds it. Albeit faint and not in the direction she thought it would be, but it’s there. She concentrated on it for a few minutes, trying to detect if there was anything unusual or indicative that something is wrong. 

It’s steady and constant. 

Kara’s not sure what to do with that info and stews on it for another hour after easily locating Lex’s heartbeat closer to her and far away from Lena.

By seven, she’s hovering outside Lena’s office, using her enhanced vision to find Lena’s belongings, including her phone, neatly tucked away in the drawer she usually keeps them in. On instinct she takes her own phone out and places it out of sight on the balcony before pushing off the ground and into flight towards the sound of Lena’s heart. 

It takes her five minutes to get there. About four minutes and fifty seconds more than it would usually take. She’s trying to think about what she’s flying in to. Lena’s obviously upset about something - but it could be anything from a ridiculous directive from Lex to ...something worse. She lands on the tarmac outside a hanger she recognizes from the day she and Lena went to Kaznia. A minute later she’s inside the hanger and using her enhanced vision to confirm Lena’s alone and isn’t under duress. She’s also aware by the uptick in Lena’s heartbeat that Lena knows she’s there and that she isn’t moving to come out to greet her, either. 

She’s unhurried in her walk to the plane, putting her glasses back on and allowing her supersuit to disappear and return her to her street clothes. She’s patient even as she pulls on the door latch and waits for the hydraulic ramp to lock into place. She feels like it’s important that whatever this moment is, it’s not rushed. She even hits the button by the door once she’s inside the cabin to close it. 

Leans didn’t turn the lights on and neither does she as she makes her way past a couple empty seats, Lena’s eyes on her the entire time. She crouches down in front Lena and gently takes the glass of scotch from her hand and sets it aside before running her hands down Lena’s shoulders and arms, reassuring herself that Lena is unharmed. 

“Phone?”

“On the balcony outside your office,” Kara answers, knowing Lena’s concern. Lex might be aware of their location, but he can’t use either of their phones to listen in on them. 

“You scared the hell out of me,” Kara doesn’t mind telling her. “When you didn’t come home..” Kara shakes her head. She considered far too many dark scenarios on where Lena might be and what could have happened. She doesn’t have to think about that anymore.

Lena’s broken heart twists painfully in her chest when Kara uses the word _home_ like she belonged there. She lets Kara pull her into her arms and clings tightly to her, afraid that once Kara lets go and she says what she needs to Kara won’t want to talk to her again, let alone touch her. 

She finally releases her death grip on Kara and allows her to put some distance between them. She doesn’t go far, of course. Just takes a seat on the low table in front of Lena instead of the empty seat on the other side of it and waits patiently for whatever it is that she needs to say. 

She watched as Lena reclaimed her glass and swallowed a couple of ounces of single malt as easy as water. She tried not to frown too much at how much Lena has already consumed to be at that point, a foreboding knot forming in her chest. 

“It’s me. It’s all me,” Lena tells her calmly. Like the words don’t make her want to repeat what happened with the trash bin earlier. Like she doesn’t want to stop breathing. Stop existing. 

Kara stares blankly at her for a moment before venturing a guess. “Are we talking about the Q wave thing?”

“Kara. I really will kill you,” Lena swears, pinching the bridge of her nose, exasperated, before the memory of entrapping Kara by means of kryptonite knocks the air out of her and she slumps forward in the chair.

“Too soon!” Kara points at her, far too glib about the situation and she knows it. It’s the absolute worst possible way to address the cards Lena’s laid on the table and Kara immediately regrets trying to make light of how dire the situation is for the woman across from her. 

But Kara’s had time. Lots and lots of time, thanks to the vanishing point. Time to reflect on the deeper motives behind Lena’s choices. Before Alex even raised the possibility of the influence of Q waves, Kara came to terms with Lena’s actions and intentions. All of it.

Lena has not had that same opportunity, but Kara would see to it that she did. 

Without hesitation she bridged the gap between them, plucked Lena from her chair and sat back down with her cradled against her. Lena tried to struggle against Kara - despising the idea that she should be comforted by the one person she set out to harm and hating how good and right everything about Kara felt even now. Eventually she stopped fighting it, letting Kara pull her in even closer. 

“It was always a possibility,” Kara points out gently after a few moments of relative calm.

“That I would go criminally insane, lobotomize my assistant and purposely poison you with Kryptonite?” Lena spat out angrily. 

“Not that specifically, but yes.”

“How can you calmly sit there and pretend like I’m worth saving?” 

“Because I love you. Because I’m not going to let you fall back down. Most importantly, because I’m not going to push you down again,” Kara answered simply. “I’m not excusing you. I’m holding you responsible. But I’m also holding you.”

Lena felt like sobbing into Kara’s chest - and she knew she would be doing that very shortly anyway but she resisted the idea that she had earned or deserved any comfort or reason Kara had to offer when her worth and specific lack thereof to the Luthor clan had been tattooed into her soul. 

“You _shouldn’t_ be holding me. You should be arresting me.”

That only makes Kara hold her tighter. 

“A few years ago, Maxwell Lord developed a substance similar to Kryptonite that instead of killing me, wiped out my capacity to love and stripped away any positive identity I possessed. 

“I said horrible things to the people closest to me. I sabotaged a colleagues career because I was jealous of her.”

Kara takes a shaky breath for this next part and Lena resists trying to comfort her as she goes on.

“I physically hurt Alex and accused her of being nothing but someone that fed off my glory and had nothing to live for but the crumbs I gave her. I threw Cat Grant off her balcony at CatCo and let her fall 30 stories before I caught her because my intention wasn’t to kill her, just humiliate and belittle her.”

Lena knew of the situation with red kryptonite, but not the details. Nothing of the agony she can hear in Kara’s voice.

“Every bad thought I ever had, I acted on. I was cruel to James, whom I was in love with, because I thought he didn’t love me back and thought I was justified in hurting him. I made Winn feel small and like he didn’t matter. Not to me. Not to the world.

“I forced J’onn to reveal his identity and he was imprisoned, interrogated and tortured. 

“I did that. 

“All of that was inside me. And all it took was a chunk of red rock to free it.” Kara pauses a moment to center herself once more. Leans into the hand Lena reaches out to smooth over the curve of her brow and along her jaw. 

Soaks in the touch for what it is. Comfort. 

She takes her time to collect and organize her thoughts in a way that’s helpful to Lena. To combat every rotten survival instinct Lena developed to endure Luthor manipulation, grooming and outright abuse. 

“When I stopped being influenced by red K, those same people I hurt stood by me. Alex stood by me. They didn’t have any reason to trust me or even stick around, but they did. They let me work on rebuilding everything I tore down. They forgave me and loved me and let me grow back into the hearts that I’d broken.

“I love you. I already have and will continue to fight for you to give you that same chance.”

It takes long minutes for Lena to absorb Kara’s words. Her intentions. Her love. 

It would take time, possibly an entire lifetime, to erode and replace the damage she caused and the damage she sustained and maybe she’d never lose that shadow completely, but the seed of hope had already sprouted and she allowed herself to believe Kara when she swore to continue nurturing it. Who better to be her light? 

She feels the concussion of her actions surge through her like a tsunami and she rolls through the punches as best she can, tossed around and more often than not, losing sight of the surface and the blue sky above. Kara’s strong presence keeps guiding her back and prevents her from being pulled under completely. 

Kara loses track of time. She hovers in the gray area of sleep limbo while Lena has long since cried herself out. She keeps herself from falling completely asleep to guard Lena. To be aware and awake if she needs her. 

And also the chair is getting really uncomfortable, even to her. She can’t imagine Lena is all that comfortable either, though Lena tells her she makes an excellent pillow. 

She ponders over waking Lena and taking them home, and staying exactly where they are - hidden away from prying eyes in a neutral location. In the end, she decides they should stay put. She stands with Lena in her arms, careful not to jostle her and heads towards the back of the cabin where the bedroom is. It’s not a full sized bed, but it’s flat and cushioned and much better than sitting in a chair with someone in your lap. 

It takes some careful maneuvering, but soon enough they’re tucked in, clothes hanging neatly (Lena is a terrible influence.) and Lena raises her head from Kara’s chest, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar surroundings. 

“Kara?” Her voice is laced with confusion - sleep, alcohol and some hard truths all contributing. 

“Right here,” Kara promises, guiding Lena back down. 

Lena doesn’t notice her own lack of clothes, but happily rubs her cheek languidly over smooth flesh. 

Lena emits a noise that’s the perfect combination of alcohol misery and fleshly delight that has Kara grinning and biting back a chuckle. 

She thinks Lena has drifted back to sleep and is headed that way herself when Lena speaks again. 

“Why are you here?”

“Because you’re here,” Kara answers simply. 

“Do you think you have to be?”

“I want to be where you are,” Kara tells her - strong and firm. 

“I understand if that changes,” Lena volunteers. 

Kara smiles in the near darkness. As if. “It won’t.”

“I’m not going to make you promise or hold you to it. I won’t trap you like that again.”

“I promise anyway.” 

“I love you,” Lena swears. There’s not much she has confidence in right now except this. 

Kara nuzzles into Lena’s hair, kissing the top of her head. “I love you.”

* * *

_Larry’s dark haired human is sad. He can tell by the vibrations against his observation deck. Lately, they feel heavier and slower than her normal pace._

_He wants to make her feel better and does his best to show his support. He thinks the extra tail swish and additional bubble sends a clear message. She should be back to normal in no time._

Lena is overly aware of Alex’s presence now during meetings and conversation when it’s just her, Kara and Alex. She can tell Alex is wary of being around her in spite of her ultra polite treatment. She believes that Alex would much rather Kara wrote her off and chalked her up as a lost cause. She didn’t blame her. She felt that way herself. Only Kara? Won’t let her. 

In the last few days, she’d withdrawn as much as she could from her relationship with Kara without physically not being there. 

So far, Kara had allowed her that time and space with one proviso, and it’s that Lena comes home every night. Kara won’t let her isolate herself and fall into her darker thoughts. And this wasn’t in the proviso but is important to mention that when she comes through that door and steps out of her heels, she’s in Kara’s arms less than ten seconds later. Nighttime is harder, though. She might share the bed with the Kryptonian, but she stays on her own side with her back to Kara much of the time.

The previous night over dinner with Kara and Larry, Kara broke the silence. “Are you pulling back from me because you need to be introspective, or because you’re punishing yourself?”

“Kelly?” Lena wondered, deflecting the question. Of course she was punishing herself - wallowing in her own guilt and starting a never ending cycle of loathing herself for being weak and then being weak. 

She wanted Kara more than she wanted to breathe, but also didn’t think it was fair to have done the things she did and still have Kara’s love to fall back on. 

Still. It wounded what was left of her vulnerable pride to have Kara seeking or receiving a hypothesis of her actions. 

No matter how on the nose it was. 

“Alex, actually,” Kara gives her a knowing smile, letting her question go unanswered. She’s more or less just giving Lena some food for thought. 

Later, while grabbing a glass of juice before bed, Lena’s eye caught on a swath of indigo blue scrolling peeking out between photos and take out menus on the refrigerator door. She instantly knows what it is but goes through the pains of rearranging the takeout menus (alphabetic by country of origin, naturally) to unearth the surprisingly official looking birth certificate Kara made up when they brought Larry home. 

She’d presented it to Lena over a surprise candlelit dinner that Kara’s super speed had quickly pulled together while she was in the shower. It was obvious Kara had been planning this event for a while.

She found the envelope with her name elegantly scrawled across the front resting against a glass of her favorite red. Inside, she found the certificate, a beautifully weighted montblanc pen (Lena’s had disappeared a month earlier and she complained about how she felt like she was learning to write all over again) and a key to Kara’s apartment on what else? A goldfish keyfob. 

_“What’s all this?” Lena wondered, an uncontainable smile aimed at Kara._

_Kara blushes profusely, but doesn’t look away. “It’s your Larry Starter Kit.”_

_“This is a key,” Lena held the fob up between her fingers._

_“Wow. You really are the smarter Luthor,” Kara deadpans, earning a very unladylike snort from Lena._

_“Kara. Is there something you want to ask me?”_

_She can tell by the way Kara keeps biting at her lips she’s nervous, but also very happy. Or horny. Likely all three. And goodness gracious, its an attractive look._

_Kara breaks out the voice that’s soft and warm and never fails to make Lena’s insides clench in utter delight. “I really like it when you’re here.”_

_Lena wants badly to kiss her, knows Kara’s thinking the same thing, but they both know that there’s no stopping once_ that _ball gets rolling._

_She doesn’t need to question whether or not Kara’s sure. Kara’s never been shy about showing Lena how happy she is to share her space._

_She doesn’t even question herself, and that’s the most surprising thing. There’s no panic inducing heart palpitation and her fight or flight response doesn’t even tick._

_If any other relationship she ever had reached the point of cohabitation.. They just never did. Because Lena was a lot like a feral cat and had no idea why someone would try to take her in when she was more likely to hiss in their face and go for their eyes than curl up on their lap._

_“I love being here with you,” Lena tells her easily and honestly and without any disclaimer to fall back on._

_“You’ll need to sign on as an official resident, of course.” Kara gave her a sly smile, sliding over Larry’s birth certificate where a tiny post-it arrow pointed to the spot where she should fill in her own information._

_Kara had already filled out the line above hers - name, parent (she’d ticked the ‘mother’ box) and birthplace (Krypton) and date._

_Lena reaches for her new pen, happily adding her info - name, parent (also ‘mother’) and birthplace (Ireland) and date._

_“It’s official now,” Kara told her softly, taking the pen from her hand before pulling her to her feet._

_Lena nodded in agreement. “You’re stuck with me.”_

_They fell easily into each other’s gravity then, spending hours in the dining room, on the table, on the floor, and in living room before ever making it to the bedroom._

The rest of that weekend was a blur of flesh and desire and carnal bliss. It was one of Lena’s most treasured memories and she knew it was the same for the other Kara. 

As she stared at the date on the certificate her heart skidded to a halt realizing the one year anniversary of bringing Larry home and of she, Kara and Larry officially living together was just two short days away. 

Kara’s question continued bouncing around in her head as she slid into their empty bed and she waited for Kara to return from a Supergirl callout. To occupy her time she made arrangements to celebrate the anniversary with Kara - to make it a new memory for her and to take steps to stop her mindset that she was unworthy of loving and of being loved. 

It wasn't a magic bullet that somehow meant she was fixed. She’d be a fool to think it was. It was just a step. One she needed to make. 

Kara joined her a couple of hours later, still smelling slightly of smoke in spite of the vigorous scrubbing in the shower she took. If Kara was surprised that Lena rolled towards her and molded herself to her side, she didn’t show it. Only adjusted to wrap her arm around her and tuck her in closer. 

“I’m glad you’re home,” Lena told her, voice faint and heavy with sleep. 

“Infinity,” Kara promises out of nowhere. 

“And beyond,” Lena confirms without hesitation. They’ve never exchanged those words before. But the context grew easily between them, as most everything else did. 

Larry adds this new observation to his log.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do we think? One more chapter, or is this a good place to stop?


End file.
